Colossians 3:12-17, Ps 150, Luke 6:27-38
After listening closely to our readings this morning; if anyone comes away feeling a little bit inadequate, try not to get too down about it.
The first reading from St. Paul prescribes a community setting that I have never been witness to, at least not on an ongoing basis; “Be clothed with compassion and kindness”, “Bear with one another and forgive just as Jesus has forgiven you.” “Admonish one another with wisdom”, “sing psalms and hymns to God”. As a member of a religious community of men I can say that we try to do some of these things most of the time, and we have tried to do most of these things at least some of the time but we certainly don’t do all of these things, all of the time. And that is just amoung our brother Redemptorists.
In the Gospel Jesus goes on to raise the bar even higher.
Where St. Paul says to love your fellow community members, which is hard, Jesus says that we must also love our enemies and do good to those who hate us, which is much harder. Are we setting ourselves up for failure by trying to follow this advice?
The short answer is, “Of course we are?”, at least from one perspective. It’s very difficult to love most of the time especially when we are dealing with people who don’t want to reciprocate the feeling. If we have any human emotion in us at all we are bound to be frustrated in our attempts to consistently love people. But the point is not to be perfect about it, the point is to be willing to try at all.
For some, family is taken for granted. For these, community members are just there to be used to move oneself to the front of the pack, and to love one’s enemy is not even on their radar. For Jesus to offer this as a way of life is revolutionary. If everyone were to at least try this approach, even in just the smallest way, it would be world changing.
I watched a TV commercial the other day that began with someone offering an act of kindness. Someone witnessed that kind act and smiled. They then went on their way and did a kind act for somebody else and the process kept repeating itself. Does that sound simplistic and naïve? In fact it’s an example of what is really going on in the world today except that the kind act has been replaced by an act of violence.
A rude word, a sour glance, a gesture exchanged in morning traffic; all these things perpetuate themselves and bring sadness and anger into our world. The Gospel invites us to stop that cycle of violence, to try and be bearers of peace and light. We don’t have to do it perfectly we just have to try.
